Bosnia and Herzegovina Population: 3,875,723

Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of sovereignty in October 1991 was followed by a declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992 after a referendum boycotted by ethnic Serbs. The Bosnian Serbs - supported by neighboring Serbia and Montenegro - responded with armed resistance aimed at partitioning the republic along ethnic lines and joining Serb-held areas to form a "Greater Serbia." In March 1994, Bosniaks and Croats reduced the number of warring factions from three to two by signing an agreement creating a joint Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 21 November 1995, in Dayton, Ohio, the warring parties initialed a peace agreement that brought to a halt three years of interethnic civil strife (the final agreement was signed in Paris on 14 December 1995). The Dayton Peace Accords retained Bosnia and Herzegovina's international boundaries and created a multi-ethnic and democratic government charged with conducting foreign, diplomatic, and fiscal policy. Also recognized was a second tier of government composed of two entities roughly equal in size: the Bosniak/Bosnian Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska (RS). The Federation and RS governments are responsible for overseeing most government functions. Additionally, the Dayton Accords established the Office of the High Representative (OHR) to oversee the implementation of the civilian aspects of the agreement. The Peace Implementation Council (PIC) at its conference in Bonn in 1997 also gave the High Representative the authority to impose legislation and remove officials, the so-called "Bonn Powers." An original NATO-led international peacekeeping force (IFOR) of 60,000 troops assembled in 1995 was succeeded over time by a smaller, NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR). In 2004, European Union peacekeeping troops (EUFOR) replaced SFOR. Currently EUFOR deploys around 600 troops in theater in a policing capacity.

Within Bosnia and Herzegovina's recognized borders, the country is divided into a joint Bosniak/Croat Federation (about 51% of the territory) and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska or RS (about 49% of the territory); the region called Herzegovina is contiguous to Croatia and Montenegro, and traditionally has been settled by an ethnic Croat majority in the west and an ethnic Serb majority in the east

conventional long form: none conventional short form: Bosnia and Herzegovina local long form: none local short form: Bosna i Hercegovina former: People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

2 first-order administrative divisions and 1 internationally supervised district* - Brcko District (Brcko Distrikt)*, the Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine) and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska; note - Brcko District is in northeastern Bosnia and is a self-governing administrative unit under the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina and formally held in condominium between the two entities

Independence:

1 March 1992 (from Yugoslavia; referendum for independence completed on 1 March 1992; independence declared on 3 March 1992)

National holiday:

National Day (Statehood Day), 25 November (1943); note - observed only in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity

Constitution:

the Dayton Peace Accords, signed 14 December 1995 in Paris, included a constitution; note - each of the entities and cantons also has its own constitution

Legal system:

civil law system; Constitutional Court review of legislative acts

Suffrage:

18 years of age, 16 if employed; universal

Executive branch:

chief of state: Chairman of the Presidency Nebojsa RADMANOVIC (chairman since November 2012; presidency member since 6 November 2006 - Serb); other members of the three-member presidency rotate every eight months: Bakir IZETBEGOVIC (presidency member since 10 November 2010 - Bosniak); Zeljko KOMSIC (presidency member since 6 November 2006 - Croat)

head of government: Chairman of the Council of Ministers Vjekoslav BEVANDA (since 12 January 2012)

cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the council chairman; approved by the state-level House of Representatives (For more information visit the World Leaders website )

elections: the three members of the presidency (one Bosniak, one Croat, one Serb) elected by popular vote for a four-year term (eligible for a second term, but then ineligible for four years) by constituencies referring to the three ethnic groups; the candidate with the most votes in a constituency is elected; the chairmanship rotates every eight months and resumes where it left off following each general election; election last held on 3 October 2010 (next to be held in October 2014); the chairman of the Council of Ministers appointed by the presidency and confirmed by the state-level House of Representatives

election results: percent of vote - Nebojsa RADMANOVIC with 48.9% of the votes for the Serb seat; Zeljko KOMSIC with 60.6% of the votes for the Croat seat; Bakir IZETBEGOVIC with 34.9% of the votes for the Bosniak seat

note: President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Zivko BUDIMIR (since 17 March 2011); Vice Presidents Spomenka MICIC (since 21 February 2007) and Mirsad KEBO (since 21 February 2007); President of the Republika Srpska: Milorad DODIK (since 15 November 2010)

Legislative branch:

bicameral Parliamentary Assembly or Skupstina consists of the House of Peoples or Dom Naroda (15 seats, 5 Bosniak, 5 Croat, 5 Serb; members designated by the Bosniak/Croat Federation's House of Peoples and the Republika Srpska's National Assembly to serve four-year terms); and the state-level House of Representatives or Predstavnicki Dom (42 seats, 28 seats allocated for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 14 seats for the Republika Srpska; members elected by popular vote on the basis of proportional representation to serve four-year terms); note - Bosnia's election law specifies four-year terms for the state and first-order administrative division entity legislatures

elections: House of Peoples - last constituted in 9 June 2011 (next likely to be constituted in 2015); state-level House of Representatives - elections last held on 3 October 2010 (next to be held in October 2014)

election results: House of Peoples - percent of vote by party/coalition - NA; seats by party/coalition - NA; state-level House of Representatives - percent of vote by party/coalition - NA; seats by party/coalition - SDP BiH 8, SNSD 8, SDA 7, SDS 4, SBB BiH 4, HDZ-BiH 3, SBiH 2, HDZ-1990/HSP BiH 2, other 4 note: the Bosniak/Croat Federation has a bicameral legislature that consists of a House of Peoples (58 seats - 17 Bosniak, 17 Croat, 17 Serb, 7 other); last constituted May 2011 (next likely to be constituted in 2015); and a House of Representatives (98 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms); elections last held on 3 October 2010 (next to be held in October 2014); percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party/coalition - SDP BiH 28, SDA 23, SBB BiH 13, HDZ-BiH 12, SBiH 9, NSRzB 5, HDZ-1990 3, HSP 3, DNZ 1, PDP, 1; the Republika Srpska has a National Assembly (83 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms); elections last held on 3 October 2010 (next to be held in October 2014); percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party/coalition - SNSD 37, SDS 18, PDP 7, DNS 6, SPRS 4, DP 3, SDP BiH 3, SDA 2, NDS 2 SRS-RS 1; as a result of the 2002 constitutional reform process, a 28-member Republika Srpska Council of Peoples (COP) was established in the Republika Srpska National Assembly including 8 Croats, 8 Bosniaks, 8 Serbs, and 4 members of the smaller communities

Judicial branch:

highest court(s): BiH Constitutional Court (consists of 9 members); Court of BiH (consists of 44 national judges and 7 international judges organized into three divisions - Administrative, Appellate, and Criminal, which includes a War Crimes Chamber) judge selection and term of office: BiH Constitutional Court judges - 4 selected by the Bosniak/Croat Federation's House of Representatives, 2 selected by the Republika Srpska's National Assembly, and 3 non-Bosnian judges selected by the president of the European Court of Human Rights; Court of BiH president and national judges appointed by the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council; Court of BiH president appointed for renewable 6-year term; other national judges appointed to serve until age 70; international judges recommended by the president of the Court of BiH and appointed by the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina; international judges appointed to serve until age 70

subordinate courts: the Federation has 10 cantonal courts plus a number of municipal courts; the Republika Srpska has a supreme court, 5 district courts, and a number of municipal courts

Political parties and leaders:

Alliance for a Better Future of BiH or SBB BiH [Fahrudin RADONCIC] Alliance of Independent Social Democrats or SNSD [Milorad DODIK] Bosnian Party or BOSS [Mirnes AJANOVIC] Bosnian Patriotic Party or BPS [Sefer HALILOVIC] Civic Democratic Party or GDS [Ibrahim SPAHIC] Croat Peasants' Party-New Croat Initiative or HSS-NHI [Ante COLAK] Croatian Christian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina or HKDU [Ivan MUSA] Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina or HDZ-BiH [Dragan COVIC] Croatian Democratic Union 1990 or HDZ-1990 [Bozo LJUBIC] Croatian Party of Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina or HSP BiH [Zvonko JURISIC] Democratic National Union or DNZ [Rifat DOLIC] Democratic Party or DP [Dragan CAVIC] Democratic Peoples' Alliance or DNS [Marko PAVIC] Liberal Democratic Party or LDS [Amir HUSARIC] Nasa Stranka or NS [Denis GRATZ] New Socialist Party or NSP [Zdravko KRSMANOVIC] Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina or SBiH [Amer JERLAGIC] Party of Democratic Action or SDA [Sulejman TIHIC] Party of Democratic Progress or PDP [Mladen IVANIC] 'People's' Party of Work for Progress or NSRzB [Mladen IVANKOVIC-LIJANOVIC] Serb Democratic Party or SDS [Mladen BOSIC] Serb Radical Party of the Republika Srpska or SRS-RS [Milanko MIHAJLICA] Serb Radical Party-Dr. Vojislav Seselj or SRS-VS [Nemanja SAROVIC] Social Democratic Party of BiH or SDP BiH [Zlatko LAGUMDZIJA] Social Democratic Union or SDU [Nermin PECANAC] Socialist Party of Republika Srpska or SPRS [Petar DJOKIC]

Bosnia has a transitional economy with limited market reforms. The economy relies heavily on the export of metals as well as on remittances and foreign aid. A highly decentralized government hampers economic policy coordination and reform, while excessive bureaucracy and a segmented market discourage foreign investment. The interethnic warfare in Bosnia and Herzegovina caused production to plummet by 80% from 1992 to 1995 and unemployment to soar. With an uneasy peace in place, output recovered in 1996-99 but slowed in 2000-02 and picked up again during 2003-08, when GDP growth exceeded 5% per year. However, the country experienced a decline in GDP of nearly 3% in 2009 reflecting local effects of the global economic crisis. GDP has stagnated since then. Foreign banks, primarily from Austria and Italy, now control most of the banking sector. The konvertibilna marka (convertible mark or BAM) - the national currency introduced in 1998 - is pegged to the euro, and confidence in the currency and the banking sector has increased. Bosnia's private sector is growing, but foreign investment has dropped off sharply since 2007. Government spending, at roughly 50% of GDP, remains high because of redundant government offices at the state, entity and municipal level. Privatization of state enterprises has been slow, particularly in the Federation, where political division between ethnically-based political parties makes agreement on economic policy more difficult. High unemployment remains the most serious macroeconomic problem. Successful implementation of a value-added tax in 2006 provided a predictable source of revenue for the government and helped rein in gray-market activity. National-level statistics have also improved over time but a large share of economic activity remains unofficial and unrecorded. Bosnia and Herzegovina became a full member of the Central European Free Trade Agreement in September 2007. Bosnia and Herzegovina's top economic priorities are: acceleration of integration into the EU; strengthening the fiscal system; public administration reform; World Trade Organization (WTO) membership; and securing economic growth by fostering a dynamic, competitive private sector. In 2009, Bosnia and Herzegovina was granted an International Monetary Fund (IMF) stand-by arrangement, necessitated by sharply increased social spending and a fiscal crisis exacerbated by the global economic downturn. Disbursement of IMF aid was suspended in 2011 after a parliamentary deadlock left Bosnia without a state-level government for over a year. The IMF concluded a new stand-by arrangement with Bosnia in October 2012, with the first tranches paid in November and December 2012.

43.3% (2011 est.) 43.1% (2010 est.) note: official rate; actual rate is lower as many technically unemployed persons work in the gray economy

Population below poverty line:

18.6% (2007 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:

lowest 10%: 2.7% highest 10%: 27.3% (2007)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:

36.2 (2007)

Budget:

revenues: $7.949 billion expenditures: $8.535 billion (2012 est.)

Taxes and other revenues:

45.9% of GDP (2012 est.)

Public debt:

43.8% of GDP (2012 est.) 40.6% of GDP (2011 est.)

note: data cover general government debt, and includes debt instruments issued (or owned) by government entities other than the treasury; the data include treasury debt held by foreign entities; the data include debt issued by subnational entities, as well as intra-governmental debt; intra-governmental debt consists of treasury borrowings from surpluses in the social funds, such as for retirement, medical care, and unemployment; debt instruments for the social funds are not sold at public auctions.

general assessment: post-war reconstruction of the telecommunications network, aided by a internationally sponsored program, resulting in sharp increases in the number of fixed telephone lines available

3 public TV broadcasters: Radio and TV of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Federation TV (operating 2 networks), and Republika Srpska Radio-TV; a local commercial network of 5 TV stations; 3 private, near-national TV stations and dozens of small independent TV stations broadcasting; 3 large public radio broadcasters and many private radio stations (2010)

increasingly a transit point for heroin being trafficked to Western Europe; minor transit point for marijuana; remains highly vulnerable to money-laundering activity given a primarily cash-based and unregulated economy, weak law enforcement, and instances of corruption